Althouse: Austin faces.

December 24, 2023

Austin faces.

Talk about whatever you want in the comments.

62 comments:

narciso said...: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/12/jack_smith_not_so_nimble.html; 12/24/23, 8:01 AM
Dave Begley said...: Can’t wait to see, “The Boys in the Boat.”; 12/24/23, 8:12 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Merry Christmas all!; 12/24/23, 8:33 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: “Jesus Would Be Killed in Gaza” Peter Oborne’s Alternative Christmas Message; 12/24/23, 8:37 AM
Dave Begley said...: In an emotional outburst earlier this week, the Chairman of the Omaha Public Power District personally attacked me. He said I wasn’t “respectful.”

LOL. I’m just opposed to OPPD borrowing and spending $2b on unreliable and expensive wind and solar. I give them the facts.; 12/24/23, 8:49 AM
Big Mike said...: From the Associated Press:

”A Russian politician calling for peace in Ukraine hit a roadblock in her campaign Saturday, when Russia’s Central Election Commission refused to accept her initial nomination by a group of supporters, citing errors in the documents submitted.”

The politician in question is Yekaterina Duntsova, described as a former TV journalist and a former member of a local legislature, and she had submitted her paperwork to the Russian Central Election Commission as the first step towards getting on the ballot. However the Commission unanimously rejected her submittal, claiming 100 errors in the documents.

By contrast, here in the USA we would never play legal games to prevent a bona fide candidate from running for President.
/sarc; 12/24/23, 8:53 AM
Robert Marshall said...: How could the transphobic Mr. Rogers be allowed to appear in a larger-than-life wall mural in Austin?

Boys are boys from the beginning.
Girls are girls right from the start.
Everybody's fancy.
Everybody's fine.
Your body's fancy and so is mine.

Only girls can be the mommies.
Only boys can be the daddies.
Everybody's fancy.
Everybody's fine.
Your body's fancy and so is mine.; 12/24/23, 9:04 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Why do so many people keep saying there were no WMD in Iraq, if - according to the NYT in 2014 - "American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act”?

Or, rather, I know why so many people keep saying it, but why do so many other people let them keep getting away with it?; 12/24/23, 9:37 AM
Robt C said...: We lived in the Austin area from 2000 to last year and loved it. It and its suburbs grew like crazy during that time. But for the most part (*Buda*) the growth was handled well. I'm now back in SoCal and I get a kick out of people complaining about Austin's traffic. They have no idea.
I was raised in SoCal in the '50s and '60s, and the attitude of Central Texas in the early 21st century reminded me of those times. Growth, optimism, a general sense of good will.; 12/24/23, 9:37 AM
Charlie said...: John Waters (Crackpot 1986) on public art:

"I dare to look out my car window but immediately wish I hadn't. There, in all it's nakedly amateurish glory, is another one of those outdoor "art" murals. If this alarming trend can't be nipped in the bud, they'll be an eyesore on every corner. Did they ask ME if I wanted to look at it? How about the poor neighbors who can hardly ignore the public noodling of these no-talents every time they step out of their houses?"; 12/24/23, 9:53 AM
Joe Smith said...: I associate murals with MLK boulevard, crime, and liberalism...; 12/24/23, 9:54 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Biden BLEEDING Young Voters Over PALESTINE POLICY. LOSING TO TRUMP; 12/24/23, 10:13 AM
Enigma said...: Two men were arrested for 'stealing' a new Banksy work painted on a stop sign. How can it be theft when the creation was vandalism to begin with, and when Banksy himself made self-destructing art?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67816789

Wherever there's a pound to be made...; 12/24/23, 10:20 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Ukrainians stand in solidarity with the Palestinians; 12/24/23, 10:24 AM
Kate said...: "Can’t wait to see, “The Boys in the Boat.”"

I'll wait for streaming, but otherwise I am very excited for it. Deadline has an excellent interview with Clooney about the shoot.; 12/24/23, 10:38 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Joe Smith said...

"I associate murals with MLK boulevard, crime, and liberalism..."

And freedom. Don't forget freedom. As Donald Rumsfeld said, it can get messy. Especially with all that influence from the useless Scot's that Thomas Sowell says we got our awful ways from - I spit on them and their negative white influence - p'tuey!

But we'll become your upstanding citizens one day. Just you watch. One day, you're going to drive in an area that's totally magical, and when you look, it'll be MLK. With no murals or crime anywhere, and nothing but white conservative Ted Cruz types, lounging around peacefully with their black brothers and sisters, discussing abortion in a perfect picture of red, white and blue-bunted domestic American harmony.

And then your racist ass woke up,.; 12/24/23, 10:42 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Kat Von D EXPOSES New Age Community; 12/24/23, 11:05 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Let's talk about a poll spelling trouble for the US and Israel....; 12/24/23, 11:15 AM
Milo Minderbinder said...: One of our daughters and her family live in Austin, and we visit annually over the holidays. But for the kids, Austin's still a hot mess.; 12/24/23, 11:15 AM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: "Trump Tells Hugh Hewitt Kamala Harris Would ‘Be Better’ Than Biden as President"

There's a perennial nut ball candidate named "Goodspaceguy" that would make a better King County, WA, County Executive than the duly elected Dow "The Incompetent" Constantine. He's been in office for 11-years now, and is not running for reelection next year. He was going to end homelessness in ten years, but is no where near that goal. He hired a Mark "nincompoop" Dones as director of the Seattle-King County Homeless Authority. Dones quit last year after accomplishing nothing.; 12/24/23, 11:17 AM
mikee said...: If you like art on walls in public places, head up to the west side of the University of Texas at Austin, and find this gem, the Austin Frog, on the first block west of campus, facing north on 21st Street. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-peoples-frog/

I also highly recommend the murals along MLK Blvd in east Austin, such as the "We Rise" mural on 1900 E 12th St & MLK Blvd. Right around there are several other really nice murals.

Back when the Defund The Police riots and protests were happening a few years back, I got into a grafitti contest with Antifa. They wrote DEFUND THE POLICE on a wall along a street corner at Pleasant Valley & 12th. I overwrote the D into an R, thus REFUND THE POLICE, every other day for a couple of weeks, as a stick in the eye to the idiot Antifa protesters. Eventually, the wall was pressure washed and overpainted, and the little contest ended. I condsider it a moral victory.

I almost forggot my favorite grafitti in all of town, just one block east of I-35 across from the Police HQ. On the back of a STOP sign, a youthful historian commemorated the Antifa riot that closed the interstate for a few hours, with a mournful, "They Shot Us Here." More potent words have never been scribbled in Austin.; 12/24/23, 11:30 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Plagiarism at Harvard is the least of Higher Education's problems:

Duke University expands its reiki pseudoscience program - For some reason I thought Duke was a real university offering only state-of-the-art knowledge based in reality. My bad.; 12/24/23, 11:41 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Or, rather, I know why so many people keep saying it, but why do so many other people let them keep getting away with it?

Two reasons I believe:
1. Futility. Democrats, Leftists and progressives simply love their myths so much that there are not enough facts in the world that could or would disabuse them of their firmly held beliefs. (As a subset of this, there are people who will always believe and say "Bush lied us into war!" and their main bill of offenses is "there were no WMDs.") Just as there are no appeals to authority a Leftist will acknowledge when cornered, not Leftist politicians, not published sources, not even Marx or Obama. Facts and wishing on a referee are futile weapons against Lefty Myths. Futility has the same success rate against Myths as trying to sway a deeply pious person by telling them their religion is BS.
2. Weariness. Largely because of number one, people in the center or on the right just grow weary of trying to push that rock up a hill, and this is compounded by the Leftist habit of argument shifting, where they get specific and say "There were no nukes. Bush said Saddam had nukes!" Any venture into the presence of centrifuges and refined uranium, the capable missiles and missile parts rushed to the Syrian border on the eve of invasion or the way Saddam bragged that he did possess nuclear weapons and would use them (akin to telling cops you have a gun during a standoff and reaching behind your back) only leads to more circularity (see #1) and more argument shifting. Lefties know their repetitive circularities tire out fact and reason-based righties and center-right individuals, who will inevitably realize and perhaps say the conversation is "worthless," at which point Leftists declare victory or simply smile smugly thinking they "won" the argument.

You know the type.; 12/24/23, 11:51 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Hunting Hamas: Videos show Israeli soldiers in Gaza burning food, vandalizing a shop and ransacking private homes; 12/24/23, 12:32 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Israeli military confirms loss of 14 more troops as war intensifies - 153 total; 12/24/23, 12:37 PM
FullMoon said...: IDF troops located a Hamas weapons compound—including explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades, and intelligence documents—located near schools, a mosque and a medical clinic.; 12/24/23, 1:04 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Dust in a Baggie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6CyQftidOw; 12/24/23, 1:15 PM
wild chicken said...: "Why do so many people keep saying there were no WMD in Iraq,"

I think it comes down to the unfortunate umbrella term "WMD" which made people imagy worse, like atomic suitcase bombs etc.

Gas cannisters just didn't rise to that level and Bush Cheney et al were ill advised to use it.; 12/24/23, 1:51 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Janesville man out on lowered bond for gun charge threatens victims again, police say; 12/24/23, 2:22 PM
Temujin said...: Merry Christmas to you Ann & Meade. Wishing all the Althouse community a very Merry Christmas.; 12/24/23, 2:45 PM
narciso said...: They only needed one shell for halabja one recalls,; 12/24/23, 3:01 PM
narciso said...: https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/12/24/hamas-shoots-at-its-own-civilians-killing-boy-n2167921#google_vignette; 12/24/23, 3:03 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Via XTwitter: VaxXmas Hits 23; 12/24/23, 3:30 PM
NMObjectivist said...: Go by the Whole Foods – the big one in Austin. It's a work of art. Austin is or was there a corporate headquarters. So it's a showcase store.; 12/24/23, 4:16 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: FullMoon said...

"IDF troops located a Hamas weapons compound—including explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades, and intelligence documents—located near schools, a mosque and a medical clinic."

Oooh - 20,000 dead civilians for THAT.; 12/24/23, 4:19 PM
Paddy O said...: "I give them the facts"

In contrast, being respectful involved giving them the bribes.; 12/24/23, 4:31 PM
Jim at said...: Can’t wait to see, “The Boys in the Boat.”

We'll see if it holds up to the book.; 12/24/23, 4:37 PM
Clyde said...: Clyde's Top 15 Favorite "New" Songs of 2023 - #7 - "Plastic Jesus" - Tia Blake - Folksongs & Ballads (1972)

One day, I went looking for different versions of the song "Plastic Jesus," which I was familiar with from the version on the album Prairie Home Invasion by Jello Biafra and Mojo Nixon. According to Wikipedia, it "is an American folk song written by Ed Rush and George Cromarty in 1957. They recorded it as a humorous ad spoof in 1962 as The Goldcoast Singers," and other versions were recorded by Ernie Marrs and the Marrs Family in 1965 (with the same lyrics that were used by Jello and Mojo in their version) and by Paul Newman in the movie 'Cool Hand Luke' in 1967. Because the original version was just a couple of choruses in a comedy sketch, later versions were fleshed out with different lyrics. When I went looking for various versions on Amazon Music, the top result was the version by Tia Blake, who I had never heard of before.

From the University of Norh Carolina's biographical sketch :
"Christiana (Tia) Elizabeth Wallman (1952-2015) was a white writer, artist, and singer. She was born in Columbus, Ga., and lived much of her life in Montreal and North Carolina.

"After graduating high school in 1970, Wallman began working her first job at the New York publishing house, Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Six months into the job, Wallman quit and moved to Paris. When she arrived in France she stayed with Sicilian fok singer, Benito Merlino, who helped her get a singing audition for the record label SFPP (Societe Francaise de Productions Phonographiques) in Paris. Under the name of Tia Blake, she recorded an LP of American and Irish folk songs with SFPP. The LP, titled Folk Songs and Ballads: Tia Blake and Her Folk-group, was released in February of 1972. The album features an eighteen-year-old Tia Blake on vocals and Bernard Vendame and Francois Brigot on guitar. The three performed songs from the album a month after its release at the Theatre du Vieux-Colombier in the 6th arrondissement in Paris. This was the only live performance to promote the album's release."

She recorded some demo songs in 1973 and recorded some more in 1976 for the CBC in Canada while living in Montreal, but they were not interested. She didn't perform professionally after 1976.

So how are we able to now hear these songs from a record on an obscure French label fifty years later? I'm not sure, although it appears that her version of "Plastic Jesus" must have been used in some movie or television show, because there are two versions on YouTube with a total of over 900,000 views.

I found the full album and listened to it and was very impressed. I felt like she should have had a more successful musical career, but perhaps it was just a matter of not being in the right place at the right time. Perhaps in an alternate universe, her name would be remembered with people like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins. All I can say is that this is a great folk album, and many people consider it to be a lost classic, fortunately rescued from obscurity.

Tia Blake - Plastic Jesus

Bonus song #1: "Betty and Dupree" - Tia Blake - Folksongs & Ballads (1972)
Tia Blake - Betty and Dupree

Bonus song #2: "The Rising of the Moon" - Tia Blake - Folksongs & Ballads (1972)
Tia Blake - The Rising of the Moon; 12/24/23, 5:28 PM
Clyde said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/24/23, 5:28 PM
john mosby said...: MJB Wolf: that was Hitler’s complaint about arguing wih communists.

JSM; 12/24/23, 5:40 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Merry Christmas to all.

Meade and Ann - did you drive to Texas? Just curious.; 12/24/23, 6:19 PM
Old and slow said...: Fuck you Crack. We know how you feel. And vice versa. Fuck off. You are boring.; 12/24/23, 6:21 PM
narciso said...: they never did prove the 500 casualities at the Baptist hospital did they,; 12/24/23, 6:30 PM
Commie Videos and You a Law Professor said...: Mike of Snoqualmie - Goodspaceguy Rules!!! I voted for him for every position he ever ran for.; 12/24/23, 7:08 PM
Tommy Duncan said...: The guy in the second (lower) picture appears to be Mickey Gilley of "The girls get better looking at closing time" fame.

Mickey was a cousin to Jerry Lee Lewis.; 12/24/23, 7:15 PM
Howard said...: Our crew team in Santa Barbara leased a couple old school cedar Pococks from Conn Findlay. One eight was called the El Capitan if memory serves. Êtes-vous Prêts? Partez!; 12/24/23, 7:28 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: XTwitter: watch till the end; 12/24/23, 7:31 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Great. Once again my unfamiliarity with Hitler brings forth an unfortunate comparison.; 12/24/23, 8:23 PM
Michael said...: Howard. Heavy boats. But fast.; 12/24/23, 8:46 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Old and slow said...

"Fuck you Crack. We know how you feel. And vice versa. Fuck off. You are boring."

I am boring and you are a liar, always claiming 40 decapitated babies, mass rapes, and other atrocities that never happened. That's how desperate your sorry ass is - you have to lie and your lies only work to reveal what goes on in your lurid, perverted little racist minds. THAT'S why I'm 'boring' and you're considered to be just a walking bag of monkeys.; 12/24/23, 9:16 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: 12/24/23, 7:28 PM
Blogger Lem the artificially intelligent said...
XTwitter: watch till the end

12/24/23, 7:31 PM

Dad isn't ready for the U.S. Senate. Cruel and unusual punishment.; 12/24/23, 9:31 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: The Resistance; 12/24/23, 9:32 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: We're supplying the Zionists with weapons, to maintain their apartheid state, and as inheritors of Britain's empire and 'the white man's burden.' The Palestinians did nothing to deserve any of it. Yurp - who actually abused the Jews for 2,000 years - watches, and hopes nobody remembers who's to blame for all this bloodshed, and how it all started. And meanwhile, Zionist hate festers, tying them together, but destroying the society they're trying to protect, or claim is safe.

And here in America, our masks fell off, allowing us to see who we'd have been if alive in Germany during WWII: the fascists who thought it was finally safe to kill innocent women and children, indiscriminately, all gleefully exposed themselves. And, you can bet, they're never going to hear the end of it. THAT'S a stain on their Permanent Records. I mean, if they believe in God, they got some 'splainin' to do, because their moral compass definitely broke on this one.

Merry Christmas, Losers.; 12/24/23, 10:23 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: The Untold Shameful History Israel Wants Africans To Forget

Zionism: it's white supremacy-a-go-go; 12/24/23, 10:49 PM
gadfly said...: Inside the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, the location where Jesus was born in a manger, there have been few visitors this year because of the war. A short walk from the Church of the Nativity is the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church. There, the Rev. Munther Isaac and his congregation chose this year to make a statement about the killing of so many children in Gaza.

Using broken cement and paving stones, they placed the baby Jesus in the center of a pile of debris from a collapsed home. . .

So here is the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church's Nativity scene in Bethlehem portraying the baby Christ born under rubble and wrapped up in a Palestinian keffiyeh.; 12/25/23, 1:35 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: gadfly,

And here's the Reverend of Bethlehem, damning everyone complicit in this murder, and making it clear apologies are no longer welcome, and salvation's no longer coming.; 12/25/23, 6:30 AM
Rusty said...: Serious question.
Is there such a thing as too many murals?; 12/25/23, 9:41 AM
Old and slow said...: Blogger The Crack Emcee said...

"I am boring and you are a liar, always claiming 40 decapitated babies, mass rapes,"

Have a closer look Crack. I've specifically said that I do not care if these reports are strictly true or not. I am in favor of eradicating Hamas with all that that entails, and my stance is entirely unaffected by these details.; 12/25/23, 10:40 AM
Tacitus said...: Pretty sure the lower picture is the inimitable Jerry Jeff Walker, albeit rendered poorly.; 12/25/23, 11:03 AM
rhhardin said...: Robot readings of Heidegger pronounce Dasein dah-see-in.; 12/25/23, 1:32 PM
madAsHell said...: I saw The Boys in the Boat.

I grew up in the shadow of the UW crew house. I never crewed. I liked the movie, but I’m a fanboy.

Oh, yeah……..Go Huskies!; 12/25/23, 2:41 PM
Drago said...: Breaking News: "A Senior Leader with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, Brigadier General Reza Mousavi was Killed as a result of an Israeli Airstrike near the Syrian Capital of Damascus earlier today; General Mousavi was the Head of Unit 2250 with the IRGC’s Quds Force which conducted Logistical Operations for Iran across Syria and had been a Primary Target for Israel for several years."

Let me be the first to offer condolences to Hamas 7th Century Death Cult Fanboy Li'l Crack-y.; 12/25/23, 3:51 PM